With Walker’s Budget Address, Wisconsin Protests Are About to Heat Up

March 1, 2011

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Wisconsin protesters are bracing for Governor Scott Walker to give his budget address today, as a judge orders the Capitol building to reopen to the public after being locked down for the past few days. The Nation’s John Nichols joined MSNBC’s The Ed Show Monday to describe the situation in Madison.

Wisconsin saw it’s largest protest in the state’s history on Saturday, a crowd swelling to more than 100,000 that Nichols describes as a diverse grouping of people from all areas of life in the state. The protesters are pushing the governor to accept the compromise deal that unions have put forth, but Walker has insisted that his bill include provisions that would end collective bargaining rights for public workers.

And, according to Nichols, the situation is about to intensify. “What the governor is proposing is a nearly a billion dollar cut in public education funding. That will be devastating to our urban schools especially, but also to rural schools,” he says. “My sense is that the outcry will be a louder roar than what we’ve heard up to this point.”